It looks like Hoda Kotb is emerging as the favorite to take over for Ann Curry, who is supposedly leaving/being kicked off of NBC's Today A-team. A source said, "Hoda scores off the charts in focus groups, and the audience can relate to her," which seems like just the sort of thing morning show producers rub their fingers and say, "Gooooood" about in an evil Emperor Palpatine voice. She also reportedly gets along well with the Tom Cruise of morning shows, Matt Lauer, which is really important. Not so important, it seems, are Kathie Lee's hurt feelings at being abandoned by her very best friend in the whole world. [NYDN]

After months of speculation that her job was in danger, it appears that Ann Curry's is finally …
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Ashley Olsen offered lukewarm approval of her sister's new boyfriend, saying she has "no problem — yet" with the age difference between M-Kay and M-Kay's new beau, 42-year-old Oliver Sarkozy, the brother of France's former president. This is ostensibly because Sarkozy "is mature" and "respectful," but also probably because he makes the best clonazepam smoothies. [NYDN]

We should be seeing more of Christopher Meloni — Lionsgate just signed the actor for a comedy called They Came Together, which stars fellow Wet Hot American Summer alums Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler as "a man and woman who dislike each other, with Rudd's company trying to close down Poehler's candle store." Fingers crossed for a three-alarm scented candle fire. [THR]

The man who brought us Ryan Gosling in a movie about a paperboy who has to come to grips with growing out of his beloved profession by beating people up and wearing a cool scorpion jacket is going to adapt Barbarella for television. Director Nicolas Refn has said that Barbarella is "one of the ultimate counter-culture characters," and is looking forward to repackaging her for a whole new generation of people who don't pay to see movies anymore. [THR]

Nadya Suleman and her manager say their Virgin America flight was awful because they were forced to change seats and overheard the crew laughing at them. That actually does sound kind of shitty, especially considering the fact that flying anywhere on any airline is stressful enough without snarky flight crews. [TMZ]

Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian covered their faces and danced together at their respective gentleman friends' Watch the Throne concert in Birmingham, England. And there was much rejoicing. [Us]

Just as the Beverly Hilton was shedding the stigma of Whitney Houston's sudden death, a man and woman have been found found dead at the star-crossed hotel in what police believe was a murder-suicide, just hours before the hotel played host to the Daytime Emmy Awards. Police have not yet said whether the two people were connected with the Daytime Emmys. [AP]

Simon Cowell's company Syco has confirmed that it's filing a counterclaim against the U.S. version of One Direction, claiming that the California boy band was trying to capitalize on One Direction U.K.'s success by stealing their name (One Direction U.S. had initially sued their British counterparts for stealing their band name). As the One Direction ouroboros devours its own tail, we might remind ourselves that all boy bands are pretty much exactly the same, and that the One Direction cross-Atlantic music conglomerate should just share the One Direction name and claim that it's some sort of meta critique of the formulaic music industry. [BBC]

In a bid to stay relevant, Kris Humphries told his girlfriend Myla Sinanaj that he knew Kim Kardashian cheated on him with Kanye West, even as Sinanaj rolled her eyes and muttered, "If I have to hear about the Kardashians one more time..." [TMZ]

Animal rights group Born Free doesn't want noted 7up enthusiast Cee Lo to bring his cockatoo on The Voice for fear that stress from the show could cause the animal to self-mutilate. Sad face for contestants on The Voice and their bird-killingly bad voices. [TMZ]

Jill McNeal, the estranged wife of Cake drummer Peter McNeal, says she trusts her husband around the couple's young children, even though he recently stood trial for child molestation. TMZ is pretty incredulous about it. [TMZ]

Bubba Sparxxx — former Timbaland protege, for what that's worth — is the latest entertainer to not pay his taxes. [TMZ]

Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen are two men so off-the-wall crazy they probably should never hang out, which is exactly why Robert Rodriguez has hired them to star in his new movie, Machete Kills. [Janet Charlton]